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> BTC has been around since 2008. Today in 2023 BTC is like $27k. Does the longevity, ubiquity, price and liquidity of BTC fit the pattern of a useless get rich quick scheme? Has any such scheme existed this long, despite so much scrutiny and hostility, based on hype and confidence alone?

Yes, Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme famously ran for decades, with everyone invested calling doubters idiots and pessimists.

Until it all fell apart.

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> Yes, Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme famously ran for decades, with everyone invested calling doubters idiots and pessimists.

As an aside, I can think of exactly one person who benefitted from Madoff's scheme: former New York Met Bobby Bonilla, who is set to receive about USD$1.2MM from the team every July 1 through 2035. Bonilla's contract was bought out by the Mets in 2000, and instead of paying him the USD$5.9MM he was owed, the team offered a deferred payment scheme (with payments starting in 2011), as they were looking at double-digit returns from their Madoff investments in the deferred decade.

This is a common straw man argument.

Madoff was a single individual controlling the narrative.

Bitcoin has no central actor.

The same problem existed with FTX/SBF. But when they went down, it wasn't like Bitcoin died with them.

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